Four members of the group that stole diamonds from Alrosa mining company, who were supposed to smuggle them to Armenia, were detained and arrested in Moscow. This was reported to TASS by the public relations center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the spokesperson of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Svetlana Petrenko.

“Investigators of the Investigative Committee and operatives of the FSB detained Valentina Matyushchenkova, the company employee who stole the diamonds, her son Aleksey Matyushchenkova, who played the role of an intermediary, as well as Armen Petrosyan and Arman Sahakyan, who smuggled [diamond] stones, attempting to steal another batch of diamonds worth more than 1.7 million rubles. The court has chosen arrest as a preventive measure for the defendants,” Petrenko said.

Thus, the FSB reported that “the activities of a group of individuals who systematically stole high-quality diamonds from Alrosa for the purpose of further illegal sale and smuggling into the territory Armenia have been stopped.”

The FSB added that those behind this illegal activity were the Baghikyan brothers, Armenian citizens who are on the international wanted list for diamond smuggling.

“The stolen diamonds were brought to Armenia by ADM Diamond LLC, the beneficiary of which is Armenian businessman and MP of the National Assembly of Armenia, Sukiasyan H. A.,” the FSB public relations center reported.

It added that during the searches, about 200 thousand carats of technical diamond raw materials were seized from the defendants, and they were intended to replace high-quality raw materials with cheaper ones, as well as cash and expensive jewelry of world-famous brands.

According to the Investigative Committee of Russia, from September 2024 to January 2025, the defendants systematically stole high-quality diamonds from the Alrosa mining company in order to obtain material benefit and smuggle them to Armenia.

The criminal case is being investigated under Section 4 of Article 158 (theft), and Section 5 of Article 191 (illegal trafficking of amber, jade or other semi-precious stones, precious metals, precious stones, or pearls) of the Criminal Code of Russia.